Tuesday, September 29, 2015

With maybe too much
time on my hands, I’ve begun lately to think about the greatest influences on
my life from the beginning.This not to
diminish in any wayunmentioned family,
children or friends over my over three quarters of a century who gave me so
much and to whom I am forever grateful.

Maggie Merriman-Whose
pain over my father’s absence in Europe in WWII was visible to me as a child
and in later life made me think hard about war and its terrible toll on those
involved.Through her I learned too
about religious discrimination and exclusion and fanaticismas non-Mormons in Utah. Her enrollment of me
as a kid of 10 or so in an integrated YMCA summer camp forever shaped my
affinity for my black brothers and sisters.

Stan Worthen-My
maternal grandfather who fathered me for the two WWII years we lived with
them.He charmed me with his cowboying
stories, took me to his work as a movie projectionist and introduced me to the
magic of film art, sat me beside him when he tied amazing trout fishing flies
and regaled me with stories of his work as a labor organizer/leader in hostile
territory, Salt Lake City.

Taylor Merriman-My
father who taught me the meaning of patriotism with his father’s and his own
service as an officer in the U.S. Army in WWI and WWII respectively.It gave me my sense of duty to do the same
with ROTC and active duty as an junior officer.Another lesson important to my values was being chastised for beating up
a bully when I thought my report on this event would earn me praise.A major lesson in violence as a solution of
any kind.

Mrs. Woodruff-Old
Mill Elementary.A kind, grandmotherly
teacher who gave me love and love for learning, the most influential teacher I
ever had.It was a combination of love,
support and hard work on lessons that shaped my appreciation for educators.

Pete Gross
(Goldstone)-My first really close buddy, particularly as an only
child.His Mom made us roasted lamb ribs
and roasted potatoes on those many Friday nights when I stayed overnight to box
with him on the street below and then listen to the Friday night fights on the
radio.My first exposure to Jewish
people, loving and kind which forever gave me a strong affinity for Jewish
friends and social groups.Pete in those
early years was an avid sports fan and always wanted to be a sports announcer.
He lived his dream and became a huge sports broadcasting icon in Seattle.The lesson here, grab a dream and chase it
hard.

The Priest who
shuttled me to Marin Catholic High School- Sadly, I cannot remember his
name but I needed a ride from our nearby town to this school each day and
evening and he taught there.He did not
recruit me hard but his kind and generous help endeared me to Catholicism to
which I converted.It gave me an
affinity group and a family outside my very tolerant non-believing family.Later in high school, at my confirmation ceremony
the Archbishop of Baltimore, who officiated, planted my seeds of doubt with his
words of anti-semitism in his sermon which rang as false with me that years
later led to my departure from the Church and religion and magical belief.

Aunt Jane Angel-Among
the first unapologetic liberals and early feminists (1950’s) I was exposed to,
bending me further in that direction in high school.She also was a completely non-homophobic
person as was my mother. My mother and Aunt Jane adored my Uncle Tommy (dancer
actor, out-gay man) as others shunned him.He was a brother of my paternal grandfather and this for some was too
close for “comfort”.I too, due to their
influence loved and enjoyed uncle Tommy’s stories of his life in Hawaii
studying the hula dance tradition.In
high school, in my father’s absence due to a two year military post in Korea,
Aunt Jane and my mother brought Jane’s next door neighbors in D.C., two
professional very out gay men into my life as kind of surrogate fathers.They were enthusiastically part of major
family events including Christmas, birthdays and my high school graduation in
Maryland.

Steve Tobash-Golf
pro at the Ft. Meade, Maryland golf course.Steve gave me my first jobs in high school, teaching me lessons about
being on time and doing my best work.I
graduated from running refreshment stands at the course to shagging balls for
him on the practice range, to caddying for him both at the course and in some
Eastern PGA tournaments.I met his
Polish Parents and stayed with them in a PA. mining town when we were on Tour.Steve taught me well at the best sport I
excelled in and even assigned me to caddy for President Eisenhower when he
played our course.

Grandma and
Grandpa Merriman-With whom I lived my freshman year in college, sold me my
first car to commute to my University of Santa Clara and taught me many life
lessons.Bernice was a college educated
woman with a new England background and member of the DAR.She later resigned from the DAR when their
board protested the appearance of the first black Opera singer at Constitution
Hall.She was both an ardent feminist
and abolitionist.Fred was also a
college graduate in Pharmacy and invented a coffee brewing system which
provided them a more than comfortable living for much of their lives.He taught me about entrepreneurship which
served me well later in life.

Father Austin
Fagothy S.J., Ethics Professor, Santa Clara-This Jesuit singularly stands
out as a huge influence on my thinking and life.He is/was an acknowledged expert on ethics
and taught well and hard.So hard in
fact, when I became snarky in class and challenged him, he assigned me the task
of getting up and serving Mass for him in the chapel each morning for a
semester at 6 a.m.Those marble alter
steps were cold and hard.But he taught
me not only ethics but humility, a huge Jesuit value.I went on to become active in the Catholic
Worker Movement (Dorothy Day, founder) there and began shaping a left world
view, though my Dept. Chair mentor tried
very hard to turn me right wing.That is
the wonder of the Jesuit order; both left and right strongly represented in
their ranks.I mainly attribute my
atheism to Fr. Fagothy and the Jesuit intellectuals who taught me that I could think my way out of the Church and organized
religion which I regard as magical, wishful thinking.

Lt. Rick Melton-My
co-briefing officer for the 2nd U.S. Army.Rick also a poly sci major from Syracuse U.

Rick and I devised a “Huntley-Brinkley” style of
co-presenting our weekly world events briefing to a audience of mostly sleeping
Generals and Colonels.We got a jeep
each week from the motor pool to drive to the Pentagon.There we learned what a joke top secret files
were and the primary source of the Pentagon and CIA’s intelligence….Reuters
News Service published reports.Rick
further reinforced both my anti-war views and general left-liberal view of
world events.He went onto a
distinguished career with the State Department.He was thrown out of Nicaragua for protesting their shutting down of
newspapers during their 70’s revolution.His Uncle was Sen. Byrd from
West Virginia.He and I also taught an
enlisted guy in our unit a course in Marxism, who happened to be a son from the
Rockefeller family !

Mary Katharine
Green Merriman-My first and only love for 46 years.I fell hard and quickly when my army buddy
Scott Riley fixed me up with a double date.Blond, beautiful and vivacious she was throughout our lives
together.She gave us our four also very
blond children.We shared triumphs and
heartaches; we fought for reforms in the Catholic Church which gave us both
university educations and lost; we fought for equal rights for women, and lost
mostly.We fought the racism we found in
the south and mostly lost.We fought
together for a better Democratic Party and society and mostly lost.We fought for an integrated Houston school
system and after 3 years of integration, mostly lost. But we lost together and
it was, with all its bumps along the way, a great life together, most of it in
Houston.She gave me also my second
great love, besides my children, Sylvia Green, her mother.I adored my mother in law and am also so
grateful for her.

Bob Flowers, Bobby
Valz, Jim Hardenberg, Sam Keeper and Berkley Cooke, Dick McDonald-Six business mentors whose sage advice prepared me
for the best and the worst.Flowers-endure the trivial and more interesting things will follow.Valz- take care of the “little people” and
they will take care of you.Hardenberg-crying
when I resigned to move to Houston- you can do it. Keeper-you’re really good at this.Cooke-I trust you to do the right thing.McDonald-find a niche and work it. My advice to those starting careers, find a
good mentor. Listen hard.Ask
questions.Earn their support with your
loyalty and attentiveness to what they are teaching you.These good leaders helped me flourish at
Kroger, Hormel,Daigle Merriman &
Associates, Bozell,McDonald Davis,
MarketCare Services.They gave me a good
retirement and plenty of creative freedomboth as an employee and entrepreneur. And the strength and discipline to
endure losing Mary Kaye and the 10 years I was caregiver to Tim.

Fr.Wm. Tinney,
Houston Pastor-The one primary negative influence in my life.Fired me from my parish volunteer job as
Adult Education Director because I introduced dissident Catholic theologians to
my fellow parishioners, information apparently they should not have been
given.This liberated me to first create
a Catholic worship community called the Community of Hope for other Catholic
dissenters hoping Pope John XXIII and his Vatican Council II might give us a
modern church.They didn’t and we lasted
about three years.Mary Kaye and I then
liberated ourselves from the Catholic Church.She found community years later with a group of Catholic women and I
with atheism.

Terilynn Murray-Mary
Kaye’s cousin in Baltimore who became really the one remaining relative who
gave me a sense of family in the latter stages of my life.She constantly checks on my physical and
emotional well being like no one else connected to me excepting my adorable
spouse.Opened her home to us,
introduced us to her friends, introduced us to the possibilities of moving to
the northeast.Smart, fun and generous
in time and attention.Most of all, a
wise advice giver.She has made this
transition to the northeast so pleasurable after 45 years in Houston.

Julie Jackson-I
swore to myself on losing my first love that I was not going to be like my
father and his father and marry soon again after losing Mary Kaye.But, events over which I had little control
took over and I fell madly in love with Julie Jackson, who had been an 8 or 9 year
platonic political friend.I could not
believe the rush of feelings, so very much like the falling in love stages with
Mary Kaye.I knew these feelings were
real and authentic and all for the right reasons.At this writing,after 8 years together as husband and wife,
my love only grows.Julie give me life,
laughter, so much love and incredible companionship.I adore her and hope I show it all the time.

About Me

Moved to Wilmington, Delaware in mid-2013. Resided in Houston, Texas for 45 years. A widower, married Julie Jackson in 2007. Retired as a hospital marketing consultant in 2001.Have been a Democratic Party political activist for most of my adult life, organizing and mobilizing for the Party and its candidates. Consider myself a progressive populist. Early career included running communications for 35 campaigns. Have formed and led committees dealing with voter mobilization and precinct organizing, counter voter suppression and strategy.Co-founded the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party. Have served on the Texas Democratic Party Platform Committee numerous times. Also an active organizer for the anti-war movement since Vietnam and was active in the civil rights movement.